NPP sets up committee to review performance in 2016 polls

The New Patriotic Party (NPP), has set up a 10-member committee to review the party’s performance in the 2016 election.

The Election Review Committee, which will be chaired by a Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Adusei Poku, has been commissioned to look into what contributed to the party’s victory in the polls.

The Committee has six weeks to present its report and recommend what steps the party must take to ensure it retains power.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the acting General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, said the mandate of the committee is “to provide a detailed and honest analysis of the 2016 elections countrywide on structures and operations of the party at all levels.”

The committee is also expected to “produce a clear concise, but detailed report to form the basis for the party’s campaign to win in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections and beyond,” Mr. Boadu added.

The Committee will also “provide objective review of the current party relationships and other matters that will come before them as a committee.

The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Adusei Poku, says a review of the party’s performance is necessary, despite its victory in the 2016 elections.

“In any form of review is an exercise that occurs after an event or process has happened. In this case, it is a post mortem exercise. We do that because we want to uncover what occurred in order to forestall what will happen or in order to predict what should happen in the future. This will go a long way to assist the NPP to strengthen its position in 2020, so that we can win power and serve the people of Ghana.”

John Mahama became the first incumbent President to lose a re-election bid, to then opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, who made his third attempt at the presidency.

Nana Addo won the December presidential poll with an overwhelming 53.85% of the total valid votes cast, against Mahama’s 44.40%.

Kwesi Botchwey chairs committee to diagnose NDC’s defeat

John Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC), already has a committee in place to look into why the party lost the polls, and what could be dome going forward to ensure their return to government.

The committee, which was formed by the NDC’s Functional Executive Committee (NEC), and approved by its Council of Elders, is being chaired by a Former Minister of Finance and Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Kwesi Botchwey.